Now, I have couponed before but I never had the right supplies so it wasn’t as organized as it should have been. I also didn’t see as much benefit as I know I could have had I used the right tools. Near the end of December, I ordered my supplies noted above and I grabbed all of the inserts I had been collecting and began getting everything situated. I can proudly say that I have a binder full of coupons that are clipped, organized, and ready to go. I am so excited to see the savings! But why am I going through the trouble if we have survived without it for so long?

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HAPPY NEW YEAR! It is 2017 can you even believe it? If you’re new to the blog, let me fill you in a little bit. Last year I was a stay-at-home mom and wanted to make a financial difference for my family. Living off a low-income is kind of a vicious circle, however and it felt like I couldn’t find a solution.

If I got a job, we would have to pay for daycare and possibly get a second car and with my experience, I would have some horrible retail job with equally horrible hours. So after scouring Pinterest and various blogs, I decided I would create my own job from scratch with zero start up cost. My ultimate goal was and still is to run a fashion/lifestyle blog but I knew starting a blog cost money. You can read more about what it really costs to start a profitable blog here. (Hint: It isn’t just $3.95/month)

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Happy New Year everyone! Ready to find out how much I made in December? Well you’re in the right place.

I’m so excited to say that I not only made significantly more than I did last month, I also made more than I ever have freelancing! I’ve mentioned before how my goal is always to make at least a single dollar more than the month before. We all know, that life doesn’t always happen in a straight line headed up. My income has fluctuated the past few months but I finally broke my record so to speak. Unfortunately, this month’s income only came from my virtual assistant work at Time Etc. I’m still quite happy with the results.

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If you have read through my November 2016 income report already, you probably have an idea of what I’m going to be talking about. I said this in that report, but I want to say it again because it has really hit home for me. Too much of anything, ambition included, is never healthy. In other words, everything in moderation. You really can have too much of a good thing. Trust me.

I have always been and will forever be someone who believes in the direct relationship between input and output. What you put in to something directly correlates to what you get out. If you put an hour a week into your blog, well you either have a ton of people working on it for you, or you’re only going to see that much effort from your readers and from Google. [Read more…]

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To put it lightly, November was a complete (okay I made more than zero dollars) bust. I had big, Big, BIG plans for the month and they fell through. By “they” of course, I mean I did not live up to the challenge. Boo. I’m going to be writing about that later.

Anyway, if you’ll remember my last income report stated my goal was to make $2200 in November. Prepare yourselves for the major disappointment.

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Let me just start off by saying I am so impressed by other bloggers who cut pretty much every “luxury” out of their expenses to pay off debt and save money. Unfortunately, that isn’t happening in our situation and it is not going to. So many people are willing to forsake their iPhones for prepaid phones or start using only Netflix for entertainment. We just aren’t those people and let me tell you, it is okay if you aren’t willing to give up absolutely everything. Personally, I would rather focus on making more each month instead of cutting back. Really, truly, you will make it through and have good cell service along the way.

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Hooray! I made $400 this month in extra income! Well, pretty much. It’s always nice to see improvements in just one month. If you remember, last month I started working as a virtual assistant for Time Etc. I worked the last two weeks of September and was really proud of what I earned in that time frame. You can find that income report here.

October brought some changes to our family. Since my confidence in my earnings was through the roof, we took the leap and put our son into daycare so I could actually work the full day.

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There I was living the life, watching the Peanuts movie with my son, chasing him around as he learned to walk, keeping the house clean, getting a decent amount of sleep, living in yoga pants… So why did I start working from home and put my son in daycare when I basically had it made? Why did I start freelancing? Why start a blog? I’ll tell you why and hopefully inspire you to do the same.

Our Bank Account Was Depressing

First of all, I didn’t have it made. Sitting around the house was pretty much (and kind of still is) all we could do. Why? Literally all of our income went toward bills. Whether it be payments on loans, the car, groceries, or gas, our paycheck (by “our” I mean my husband’s) would be completely gone by the next payday. [Read more…]

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Okay so I thought I would share the income I earned from my “side-hustles” (as of right now that’s hustle…singular) so I can kind of hold myself accountable while hopefully inspiring others. If you’ve read my first couple of entries, you know I started working for Time Etc., a virtual assistant company for executives. After the application process and all the paperwork, I could work the last two weeks of the month. I was so excited! I dove in head first and my income report proves it.

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Welcome!

Hello everyone! Since this is my very first post, I thought I would introduce myself. It’s kind of awkward writing your first blog post isn’t it? Like do you just dive right in or do you take the time to do whatever it is I’m doing? I’m going to go with the second option and we’ll see what happens. After all, this blog is titled “How She Happened”.

So how did I “happen”? Well, let’s not go into the biology of it because that’s another awkward conversation that no one really wants to have. The truth is, I haven’t “happened” yet. That’s the whole point of this blog. We always hear about how so and so was an overnight success and in just a short amount of time they have over 400K followers on Instagram and make $30,000 a month just from sponsored posts. None of that is true. No one is actually an overnight success unless overnight somehow means at least a year. The purpose of this blog is to document my progress and hopefully my version of overnight success. [Read more…]